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South Korea President Yoon Is Detained for Questioning Over Martial Law

South Korea President Yoon Is Detained for Questioning Over Martial Law


President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea sounded defiant just over a year ago when the opposition-dominated National Assembly began threatening to impeach him. “​I say, ‘Try it, if you want!’” he said during a town-hall meeting.

Mr. Yoon has not only been impeached, but on Wednesday he won ​an ignominious ​place in South Korean history when he became the first sitting president to be detained in a criminal investigation.

His detention ended a weekslong ​political standoff and hand-wringing over what South Korea should do with a leader who declared martial law last month, a move that threatened decades of hard-won democracy in the country.

But Seoul’s inability to deal with the question quickly — and the fact that it had to mobilize an army of law-enforcement forces to make him surrender — ​exposed how deep the fractures are in its politics. This entrenched political polarization, combined with Mr. Yoon’s uncompromising style and his personal animus toward his political enemies, led him down a path to​ the showdown with police Wednesday at the hilltop residence where he had retreated.

Since he won his election by a razor-thin margin in 20​22, Mr. Yoon has constantly clashed with the ​majority opposition over policies, scandals involving his wife and his hostile relationship with dissiden​ts, including journalists he accused of spreading “fake news.”

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